Grant Opportunities
If you need an infusion of cash for any worthwhile endeavor, there is probably a number of grant opportunities available for you. Grants are available from both the federal government and private sources, and can help you do anything from pay for medical treatments, finance your college education, start a business or start a not-for-profit organization.
Because there is an endless number of things you might need a grant opportunity for, this list will show some of the major databases where someone seeking a grant might begin his or her search.
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Grant.gov. This is a government site that has extensive lists of grants for anything that the government funds. Depending on your qualifications, you could be eligible for education grants, research grants, environmental grants, health care grants, housing grants, minority grants, grants for Native Americans, small business grants, urban development grants, and many more.
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Department of Education. This is the place to go for any education grants provided by the federal government. This will include Pell, FSEOG, and LEAP grants, as well as any grants your state offers.
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Heath Grants. You can begin to look for these grant opportunities at the National Institutes for Health. A site called Grantmakers in Health also offers many opportunities for grants for research or treatments.
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Environmental Funds and Services provides funding for qualified applicants whose projects help with environmental awareness or responsibility, or help to make buildings, institutions or systems more environmentally.
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For those wishing to start a not-for-profit organization, NonProfitExpert.com offers lists of both federal and private grants. In some cases, there are not-for-profits whose sole purpose is to make grants to other not-for-profits, especially ones just trying to get off the ground.
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Sometimes it’s easier to look to specific foundations, rather than looking for certain subjects. A quick search engine search will lead you to long lists of private foundations and other organizations who make grants. Private foundations not only want to support certain people’s work, but they benefit from tax breaks if they do.
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Religion grants. There are grants given by religious institutions for education, social service projects, outreach, advertizing, compiling histories, hiring or training minorities or women, and many other things. One place to look for these is on FundsnetServices, but you can also go tto the national website of your faith or denomination.
Before you start applying for grants, you may find it useful to check out my Grant Writing Tips page. For even more help theres also the How to Become a Grant Writer page.
More Grant Opportunities: